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Sunday, August 31, 2008

Saturday, August 30, 2008

It is instructive to recall what GOP leaders said about John Kerry's selection of John Edwards as hi VP running mate in 2004.

Despite Edwards' SIX YEARS in the US Senate, Republicans ridiculed Edwards as being "too inexperienced" to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Here's what some of them said:

Mitt Romney, Washington Times, July 15, 2004

"But Mr. Kerry is too liberal, he says, as is his boyish-looking running mate, John Edwards. Mr. Romney says the North Carolina freshman senator is too inexperienced to be vice president - let alone only an incident away from the presidency. "

President Bush, Washington Times, July 8, 2004

"Bush yesterday criticized Sen. John Edwards for blocking his judicial nominations and bluntly dismissed the one-term North Carolina Democrat as too inexperienced to be a heartbeat away from the presidency."

Republican National Committee (AP, July 7, 2004):

"The Republican National Committee (RNC) dispensed with niceties and unveiled a lengthy report on Senator Edwards highlighting his lack of political and national security experience."

This is a perfect example of the absolute bankruptcy of the Republican Party when it comes to values and honesty. There is no there there so long as they listen to Rove.

Earlier this month, Karl Rove repeatedly argued that Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D) would not be “capable” of being Vice President. He complained that “he’s been a governor for three years” and said Kaine was mayor of only the “the 105th largest city in America,” referring to Kaine’s tenure as mayor of Richmond, VA. “It’s not a big town,” he quipped.

Yesterday, however, Rove argued just the opposite with regard to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R). He explained on Fox News that Palin was a good choice as McCain’s vice presidential nominee because she was “mayor of the second largest city in Alaska”:

ROVE: She’s a populist, she’s an economic and a social conservative, she’s a reformer, she took on the incumbent governor of the state Frank Murkowski — Republican — beat him in the primary, won an upset in the general election. She’s a former mayor. She’s the mayor of, I think, the second largest city in Alaska before she ran for governor.

Friday, August 29, 2008

She seems nice enough, but she's first and foremost a talented hockey mom who was once involved with the PTA.

OBAMA'S CAMPAIGN'S REACTION:

"Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin shares John McCain's commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush's failed economic policies -- that's not the change we need, it's just more of the same," said Bill Burton, Obama Campaign Spokesman."

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Governer Palin worked for and enthusiastically supported Patrick Buchanan when he ran for the presidecy in 1992. This is what Pat Buchanan stands for:

And this is what she REALLY thinks about Hillary and that glass ceiling:

When Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin arrived backstage for our NEWSWEEK Women & Leadership Event in Los Angeles last March, John McCain had just wrapped up the GOP nomination. Palin had yet to endorse McCain—she liked Mitt Romney—and as we waited in the green room, I urged her to "feel free" to make some news on stage. She grinned broadly—looking back, I guess it was a grin of the Cheshire Cat variety—and thanked me for the offer.Once onstage, together with Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, Palin talked about what women expect from women leaders; how she took charge in Alaska during a political scandal that threatened to unseat the state's entire Republican power structure, and her feelings about Sen. Hillary Clinton. (She said she felt kind of bad she couldn't support a woman, but she didn't like Clinton's "whining.")

Gov. Palin is embroiled in her own trooper-gate scandal up in Alaska. In short, she's accused of using her pull as governor to get her ex-brother-in-law fired as a state trooper. The brother-in-law is embroiled in an ugly divorce and custody with Palin's sister. And after his boss wouldn't fire the brother-in-law, she fired the boss. Palin originally insisted there was nothing to the story. More recently, she was forced to admit the one of her top deputies had pushed to get the guy fired.

In a press conference this afternoon, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) conceded that someone inside her administration pressured the state's Department of Public Safety to fire State Trooper Mike Wooten, Palin's former brother-in-law, who is now embroiled in a bitter custody battle with Palin's sister.

Palin's statement is the latest in what has come to be known around Alaska as "Wooten-gate." The scandal began on July 11, when Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan was fired from his post with little explanation, a move that quickly raised questions in Alaska.

A few days later, Monegan came forward, stating that he had been pressured by those around Palin to fire Wooten -- but had refused to do so -- a choice that he believes led to his sudden dismissal. Palin denied Monegan's accusations, and a Legislative Council has appointed a special commission to probe the matter.

In today's conference, Palin said that state troopers had taped a phone call from Frank Bailey, Palin's director of boards and commissions whom she appointed last August, in which Bailey inquired about having Wooten fired.

At the press conference today, Palin distanced herself from Bailey's actions claiming that he acted alone, but the recordings suggest that he was acting at her instigation.

"The Palins can't figure out why nothing's going on," Bailey said in the recorded phone call. "So Todd and Sarah are scratching their heads saying 'Why is this guy representing the department, he's a horrible recruiting tool.' You know? So from their perspective everybody's protecting him. . . Audi probably disagrees with me, Walt [Monegan] does and I understand it's really touchy, but I just want you to understand that cops that use excessive force or go out of the lines, they just have no tolerance, because they've seen the facts personally."

“It was a genuinely outstanding speech. It was magnificent. It is the finest –and I saw Cuomo’s speech, I saw Kennedy in ‘80, I even saw Douglas MacArthur, I saw Martin Luther King – this is the greatest convention speech, and probably the most important because unlike Cuomo and the others this is an acceptance speech. This came out of the heart of America and he went right at the heart of America…” - Patrick J. Buchanan

Thank you Barack Obama for your powerful speech. By all accounts you hit a grand slam homerun in a convention that had many hard hitting speakers.

You touched on all McCain's weaknesses and laid out your plan for debating them in the coming two months.

You didn't overtly mention Dr. King and the annivesary of his "I Have a Dream" speech 45 years ago--you didn't need to because you are the realization, the embodiment of that dream.

You did what had to be done in your speech. You have proven yourself to be a remarkable candidate who came from behind, overcame the mighty Clinton political machine. You have proven yourself to be a strong candidate whose campaign anwers all the ugly smears and swifboat tactics of the opposition party. Last night you made American history.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

The AP reports that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has officially become the presidential nominee of the Democratic party.

“I have been asked to inform you that Senator Obama accepts the nomination and will deliver his acceptance speech tomorrow night at the fourth night of the convention to be held at Invesco field,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced today.

Obama is the first African-American nominee of a major political party and will accept the nomination on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech.

Congratulations America! This is truly a wonderous time. I am so pleased that I have lived to see this, and I am so proud that it is the Democratic Party that has nominated this remarkable man as its standard bearer. And I'm equally pleased that Joe Biden is his VP choice.

Tonight, on the 45th anniversary of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, Barack Obama will give his acceptance speech at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Gen. David Petraeus, top commander of coalition military forces in Iraq, recently sat down with Newsweek to do a “valedictory” interview before he takes up his new post as CENTCOM commander next month.

Newsweek reported that while Petraeus recognized that al-Qaeda in Iraq has been significantly diminished, he refusesd to say the terror group had been “defeated.”

Moreover, Petraeus acknowledged that the recent successes in Iraq may have been possible without the surge: Petraeus is careful not to credit all the progress to the surge of U.S. troops in 2007.

The sea change came last year from a series of movements now known as the Awakening. So would the Sunni Awakening have succeeded without the surge? Possibly, he concedes.

Petraeus Disagrees With McCain, Says Success In Iraq Was Possible Without The Surge

Yet, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) disagrees with Petraeus, who McCain recently named as one of “the three wisest people” that he would rely heavily on as president.

Last month during an interview with CBS News anchor Katie Couric, McCain dismissed the notion that security in Iraq may have improved without the so-called “surge” of U.S. forces there:

COURIC: Sen. Obama […] says that there might have been improved security even without the surge. What’s your response to that?

McCAIN: I don’t know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened.

Also last month, McCain declared outright that “we have succeeded in Iraq. We have succeeded.”

In an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, McCain, 71, said his priority was to keep Americans in their homes in tough economic times.

Then he recalled his Vietnam experience.

"I spent 5 1/2 years in a prison cell without -- I didn't have a house. I didn't have a kitchen table. I didn't have a table. I didn't have a chair," he said.

"I spent those 5 1/2 years ... not because I wanted to get a house when I got out."

John McCain has used his POW experience as an excuse for every gaffe in his campaign.

He has now officially jumped the shark.

Someone had better tell the old guy that he's demeaned his whole POW experience by trotting it out everytime he wants to deflect attention from the issues--especially issues he's weak on or confused with.

The Republican Party is the party that ridiculed Max Cleland, triple amputee, and his service in Viet Nam. The Republican Party is the party that wore purple bandages to their convention in 2004 to mock the purple hearts John Kerry received in Viet Nam. And the Republican Party is the party that promoted the Swift Boating of John Kerry by the execrable Jerry Corsi and his slander.

The Republican Party does not respect the men and women who serve in our armed forces. They've proved it time and again. When it is politically expedient, they attack their heroism and demean their service.

Now comes John McCain who wants the country to install him as the next president and asks that no opposition point out his weaknesses and short comings because...

HE WAS A POW!

Sorry, John. Your party is the party that opened the door to mocking the service of anyone running for political office. Now it's coming back to POW! you in the ass.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

If anyone is curious why Biden is the choice, Amy Sullivan of TIME points us to a 2005 interview with Biden in Kentucky that interested her because he delivered this gem of a quote about politics and religion.

"If I'm the nominee, Republicans will be sorry. The next Republican that tells me I'm not religious I'm going to shove my rosary beads down their throat."

It is a brilliant quote all on it's own and shows the feisty spirit and quick wit that is Joe Biden and why he will make such a formidable running mate for Obama. But if you read the rest of the article, you will see exactly how closely Biden's views are echoed in Obama's and key clues as to why Obama was inclined to pick him.

1. Uniting the country/50 state strategy: "We've got to be competitive in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Colorado, Florida. If we can't be competitive in all those states, we can't unite this country."

2. Social issues: "And we have played into the hands of the Republicans. We've allowed so-called social issues to be so divisive."

3. Pragmatic and competent governance: "I think it becomes a question in the voters' minds of competence and management, and we have to show we can do it better."

While everyone is certainly focused on the differences between the candidates, those differences are actually only cosmetic and stylistic: Honolulu v. Scranton, young and black v. white and old, reflective and inspiring v. confrontational and entertaining, 3 years of Washington experience v. 3 decades. But the more you really find out about the two men and what they believe, the reality is that they are two peas of the same pod, both brilliant and both share a common vision for the direction of this country, whether it is in domestic or foreign policy. When Obama says of Biden, "He gets it", it is increasingly clear that Obama means what he says. Joe Biden is right, Republicans will be sorry, because it looks like Obama picked the right man for the job.

Friday, August 22, 2008

The McCains increased their budget for household employees from $184,000 in 2006 to $273,000 in 2007, according to John McCain’s tax returns......That's right. The McCains pay $270,000 per year for butlers and maids--that's $50,000 more than the median value of an American home.

Throughout his campaign, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has disguised his support for a failed strategy in Iraq by regularly railing against Donald Rumsfeld. A lengthy Washington Times article today highlighting McCain’s advocacy for more troops (calling it a “David against Goliath” battle) reveals that McCain’s push for more troops may have been more tepid than he portrays.In an August 2003 meeting with Rumsfeld, McCain “made a very passionate case that we need to look at adding more troops,” according to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). But in a note from Rumsfeld just after meeting, McCain reportedly told Rumsfeld, “the answer may not be more troops in Iraq“:

An aide to the secretary said Mr. McCain’s account is incorrect. “In November 2003, Secretary Rumsfeld and Senator McCain had one of a number of conversations that ended with the two in agreement on the need to win in Iraq,” Keith Urbahn said. “Senator McCain may prefer to characterize their meeting as a Showdown at the OK Corral, but that’s not straight talk. It’s a fairy tale.”

Mr. Rumsfeld wrote a two-sentence summary shortly after his meeting, according to his office. “I had breakfast with Senator McCain. He said, ‘The answer may not be more troops in Iraq, but the answer is not the status quo.’ I agree with him.”

On the campaign trail, McCain assails Rumsfeld as “one of the worst secretaries of defense in history.” Yesterday, however, The Jed Report unearthed a 2001 Larry King interview with McCain saying he would have hired Rumsfeld had he been elected President in 2000. McCain said Bush assembled the “strongest” national security team in history. Watch it:

“Oh yes, and Cheney,” he added gleefully, saying that he told Dick Cheney at the time, “If I had been elected President, you’d have been my nominee for Vice President.” “Hell, yeah,” McCain told Stephen Hayes about Cheney serving in a future McCain administration. But in 2007, McCain said Bush was “very badly served” by Cheney.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview Wednesday that he was uncertain how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own."I think — I'll have my staff get to you," McCain told Politico in Las Cruces, N.M. "It's condominiums where — I'll have them get to you."

But... but...Barack Obama is an ELITIST! He eats arugula!

John McCain, man of the people, owns so many homes he's lost track of how many, and he has his verrah own private jet, and wears $500 shoes! Now THAT'S a man o' the people!

America! Wake the hell up and look at the phoney who's hoping to be president. He's the real elitist, not Barack Obama, who has worked for everything he has achieved.

McCain: son and grandson of admirals. Got into the Naval Academy and graduated 5th from the bottom of his class. He sure merited his place in the Academy, didn't he?

America! Wake the hell up and look at what the MSM is advertising as a "man of the people."

A phoney who never would have gotten to where he is today without his grandfather, father and very, very rich wife's influence.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

New Mexico's 2nd DistrictTinsley: "My opponent will cut our troops' throats Republican candidate Ed Tinsley was roundly booed at a local candidate forum after making the outrageous accusation that his opponent, Democrat Harry Teague, will cut the throats of our troops."WATCH »

Minnesota's 6th District Rep. Bachmann: "No need to fix Global Warming, Jesus already saved the planet," Rep. Michele Bachmann (R) told the website OneNewsNow:"[Pelosi] is committed to her global warming fanaticism to the point where she has said that she's just trying to save the planet. We all know that someone did that over 2,000 years ago, they saved the planet -- we didn't need Nancy Pelosi to do that." WATCH »

In other news:Republican Leader Boehner caught golfing while House GOP pretends to be outraged at high gas prices

Big Oil tax breaks and subsidies supported by Republicans...$14 Billion Political contributions made to Republicans by Big Oil this cycle...$13.5 Million Profit earned by the top five Big Oil Companies last quarter ...$44 Billion Cost of Boehner's green fees while a small band of Republicans' express faux outrage about gas prices...The Grand Oil Party's hypocrisy about the cost of gas...PricelessLearn more about the Grand Oil Party's Hypocrisy on Gas Prices »

State Senator Debbie Halvorson left the campaign trail this week to visit her stepson who was seriously injured while serving in Afghanistan. Shockingly, her Republican opponent Marty Ozinga (R) took the opportunity to begin running attack robocalls against Halvorson.

WASHINGTON - Across the increasingly Democratic Northeast, Republicans are in danger of losing half a dozen or more Congressional seats in November, as even districts once considered safe have become vulnerable to well-financed Democrats, according to political analysts and members of both parties.

Idaho congressman Bill Sali has opened a new campaign office just upstairs from his congressional office in Boise - both of them in the 2nd Congressional District. Sali represents the 1st District.

SOUTH Alabama's 2nd DistrictPOLL:

Bright (D) leads Love by nearly 10 In a district that Bush won with 67% of the vote in 2004, Democrat Bobby Bright is polling ahead. Birmingham News:Bright, the mayor of Montgomery, was the choice of 47.1 percent of the district voters surveyed. Love, a state representative from Montgomery, was the choice of 37.4 percent.

Friday, August 15, 2008

The Obama campaign picked apart Corsi's book (I will not name it and give it more publicity) claims in a rebuttal titled "Unfit For Publication," to be posted on the Obama campaign's rumor-fighting Web site, FightTheSmears.com. The title is a play on the book Corsi co-authored against 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's military service called "Unfit For Command."

"Jerome Corsi is a discredited liar who is peddling another piece of garbage to continue the Bush-Cheney politics he helped perpetuate four years ago," said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor.

"His is just one of what will likely be many more lie-filled books rushed to print this election cycle, which are cobbled together from debunked Internet sources to make money and advance a partisan agenda. We will respond to these smears forcefully with all means at our disposal."Corsi's book is off to a swift start and is No. 1 on The New York Times' hardcover nonfiction best-seller list, even though Obama's campaign would argue the book should be listed as fiction.

Obama's campaign says the book is full of factual inaccuracies that include the wrong date for the Obamas' marriage. Corsi also writes that Obama left much of his family background out of his autobiographies — his father's polygamy and alcoholism, his sister's birth in Indonesia and that his then-fiance Michelle accompanied him on a visit to Kenya — but the campaign points out page numbers from "Dreams From My Father" where Obama discussed all those things.

Corsi suggests, without a shred of proof, that Obama may be using drugs today. Obama has acknowledged using marijuana and cocaine as a teenager but says he quit when he went to college and hasn't used drugs since.

Corsi makes an issue of the fact that, before he quit smoking cigarettes, Obama didn't want it widely known that he smoked. "If Obama takes pains to hide his smoking from us, what else does he take pains to hide?" Corsi asks in the book.

Corsi also dwells on Obama's mother marrying Obama's African father and later marrying someone from Indonesia — whom Corsi describes as "a second man of color to be her mate." The Obama campaign says the description is one of many examples of Corsi's "offensive language" in the book.

He claims Obama received extensive Islamic religious education as a boy in Indonesia, education that was only offered to the truly faithful. Actually, Obama is a Christian and as a boy he attended both Catholic school and Indonesian public schools where some basic study of the Koran was offered.

He accuses Obama of wanting to weaken the military even though Obama's campaign calls for adding 65,000 soldiers and 27,000 Marines.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Corsi defended raising the issue of drugs without any evidence.

"I don't need more," he said. "I'm putting this question forward. I'm putting the evidence (WHAT EVIDENCE? THERE IS NONE, EXCEPT HIS OWN TWISTED, BIGOTED, LIE-FILLED TEXT) forward. Voters can make up their own minds."

Corsi writes for World Net Daily, a conservative Web site whose lead headline Thursday was "Astonishing photo claims: Dead Bigfoot stored on ice."

In a series of Web posts several years ago, Corsi said Pope John Paul II was senile and unconcerned about sexual molestation of boys, referred to Islam is "a worthless, dangerous Satanic religion" and suggested Kerry was secretly Jewish.

Corsi apologized for the remarks and now says he didn't mean them and was simply trying to provoke discussion.

(We don't need to know anything more about this asshole. He admits he makes stuff up "to provoke discussion." Anyone who reads his crap and believes it, has serious problems with critical thinking.)MORE ON CORSI:Conservative author and pundit Debbie Schlussel has accused Corsi of plagiarizing elements from columns that she has published, and subsequently posting them under his byline in his WorldNetDaily column.

Corsi has been criticized for making anti-Islam, anti-Catholic, anti-semitic and homophobic statements as well as accused of "exploit[ing] racial fears [and] hate in [an] effort to scare white America."

Corsi: "Boy buggering in both Islam and Catholicism is okay with the Pope as long as it isn't reported by the liberal press." Corsi calls Senator Hillary Clinton "Hillary FAT HOG Clinton," and he calls John Kerry "John Fucking Commie Kerry." "Anybody ask why HELLary [sic] couldn't keep BJ Bill satisfied?" Corsi asks. "Not lesbo or anything, is she?" And on Kerry: "After he married TerRAHsa, [sic] didn't John Kerry begin practicing Judiasm? He also has paternal grandparents that were Jewish. What religion is John Kerry?"

Corsi, like Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, and other chickenhawks, staunchly supported the Vietnam War when he was draft age but he ducked military service with the excuse of being afflicted with "hereditary eczema."

Hereditary eczema? What a hero! John Kerry got his ass shot at in Viet Nam, while Jerome Corsi sat home and scratched his...eczema?

And then the arrogant coward writes a book full of lies about John Kerry's service (he volunteered, BTW) in Viet Nam and the American people believed the coward?

During World War II, soldiers crouching in foxholes penned letters assuring their sweethearts that they'd be home soon. Now, between firefights in the Iraqi desert, some infantrymen have been sending a different kind of mail stateside: two or three hundred dollars -- or whatever they can spare -- towards a presidential election that could very well determine just how soon they come home.

According to an analysis of campaign contributions by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has Republican John McCain, and the fiercely anti-war Ron Paul, though he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination months ago, has received more than four times McCain's haul.

Despite McCain's status as a decorated veteran and a historically Republican bent among the military, members of the armed services overall -- whether stationed overseas or at home -- are also favoring Obama with their campaign contributions in 2008, by a $55,000 margin. Although 59 percent of federal contributions by military personnel has gone to Republicans this cycle, of money from the military to the presumed presidential nominees, 57 percent has gone to Obama.

A trio of Republicans have defected from their party's likely presidential nominee and kicked off an effort to garner support for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. The group, called Republicans for Obama, is led by two moderate Republicans -- James Leach, a former U.S. representative from Iowa, and Lincoln Chafee, a former U.S. senator from Rhode Island -- along with Rita Hauser, a prominent fund-raiser for President George W. Bush. Their reasons for crossing party lines are diverse, ranging from the war in Iraq to overspending in Washington, and signal unhappiness not just with the candidacy of Republican Sen. John McCain, but with the Republican Party as a whole.

(snip)

One prominent moderate Republican not joining the group: Chuck Hagel, the senator from Nebraska. A representative for Sen. Hagel said he will not be joining the group, endorsing a candidate or attending either convention. Republicans responded by stressing Sen. McCain's bipartisan accomplishments. "Obama can roll out whoever he wants," said McCain adviser Nicolle Wallace. But for Sen. McCain, compromise "is in his DNA. It's who he is." Yet the departure underscores the GOP's struggle to define itself in the shadow of an unpopular president and in the wake of defeat in the 2006 midterm election.

Republicans for Obama plans to launch a Web site outlining the policy differences between the two candidates. Beyond that, it isn't clear what role Republicans for Obama will have in the general election. An Obama spokesman declined to comment on whether the three founding members would be attending the Democratic National Convention.

Each candidate has had trouble courting his party's base. Sen. Obama has angered some on the left as he has tried to take a more centrist approach to issues including the war in Iraq and increased funding for religious groups offering community service. Sen. McCain has upset religious conservatives with his stance on embryonic stem-cell research as well as a refusal to support a constitutional ban on gay marriage. As a result, both Sens. Obama and McCain have been able to woo some voters across party lines. Sen. Obama this week also received the endorsement of Jim Whitaker, the Republican mayor of Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska. "My goal is to let Republicans have a clear understanding that their right to vote should not be restricted by party affiliation," Mr. Whitaker told the press.

Monday, August 11, 2008

I got this email with the above-picture forwarded to me from someone who has a conservative Republican relative living in the south.

This is how the conservative (and Christian) southerners talk to each other when they don't think anyone is listening.

Sen. Obama has been accused of playing the race card by McCain. Look at what McCain's base thinks of African-Americans who aspire to the presidency.

I'm ashamed to share a country with them.

Actually, as one of my relatives said after seeing the email, it would be extremely cool to have those performers celebrate the inauguration of America's first Afro-American president. Way cool.

Except the creeps who sent this around don't mean it like that, and we all know it.

************************************************************************************My email from the person who passed this along to me:Seriously...wtf is wrong with people...are we still back in the '50s?!?!***********************************************************These are the people who are enjoying this yuk-yuk racist joke.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

McCain’s DHL problem may cost him OhioPosted August 9th, 2008 at 12:30 pm

One month ago today, John McCain hosted a town-hall event in Ohio, when Mary Houghtaling, who runs a hospice in Wilmington, choked up in describing the devastating job losses associated with DHL’s plans to close its domestic air hub in her town. McCain said he’d been “briefed” on the situation, which he described as “a terrible blow.”

Responding directly to Houghtaling, a McCain supporter, the presumptive Republican nominee added, “But I’ve gotta look you in the eye and give you straight talk. I don’t know if I can stop it or not, or if it will be stopped. So I have to tell you that. That’s some straight talk. In fact, some more straight talk? I doubt it.”

No one realized it at the time, but the exchange may have seriously undermined McCain’s chances of winning Ohio in November.

We learned this week that McCain helped push the DHL deal in the Senate, and it was McCain’s lobbyist-turned-campaign manager Rick Davis helped orchestrate the DHL deal in the first place. Workers in Ohio feared that the foreign merger would cost the community a lot of jobs, and that’s precisely what happened.

McCain made it happen, and now the Obama campaign is pouncing. This radio ad was unveiled yesterday.

“But there’s something John McCain’s not telling you,” the ad explains. “It was McCain who used his influence in the Senate to help foreign-owned DHL buy a U.S. company and gain control over the jobs that are now on the chopping block in Ohio,” the announcer says. “And that’s not all: McCain’s campaign manager was the top lobbyist for the DHL deal…helped push it through. His firm was paid $185,000 to lobby McCain and other Senators.”

Yes, this is largely an Ohio-centered issue, but as you may have noticed, Ohio’s pretty important in a presidential election.

More importantly, after a month of a McCain-attacks-Obama-responds dynamic, this is turning the tables.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Unbelievable! Imagine if someone had caught Barack Obama doing this in an unguarded moment. The wingnuts would be playing it nonstop for the next century, using it as absolute proof that Obama is NOT a patriot and that he doesn't respect our flag.

George W. Bush is the American president and he is in a foreign country. And look what he's doing to the symbol of America while thousands of foreigners look on. The man who represents us is drubbing the symbol of the country he heads, and isn't even aware of what he is doing.

No one on the Right seems to be bothered by it in the least. But had Obama been caught. Oh my, oh my, oh my.

A week or so ago, I didn't bother posting that FAUX News reported that things have been going so well in Iraq that one of the provinces has opened up a KFC franchise. Except it didn't. The geniuses at FAUX didn't bother to check out the story, but the folks at MSNBC did and found that the franchise was a faux KFC, not an American franchise at all.

And just the other day FAUX was at it again. In a report on Iraq, FAUX ran a photo of the Iranian flag. Remember the Lincoln-Douglas gaffe? Reporting on possible debates between Obama and McCain, FAUX news mentioned the historic Lincoln-Douglas debates and ran a photo of Frederick Douglass!

On Fox News earlier this week, host Brett Baier reported that “Iraqi lawmakers have left for vacation without agreeing on a provincial election law.” But during his report, an onscreen graphic showed the Iranian flag. MSNBC’s Dan Abrams noted last night that “it looks like the folks at Fox are following John McCain’s lead confusing Iraq and Iran,” adding that “it can get confusing because after all, both countries do start with an ‘I.’”

Here's a partial list from Media Matters of all the mistakes, distortions, and downright lies made in just a couple of days by FAUX:

This week, Davis returned to the floor of the recessed House with other conservatives to participate in a partisan political stunt demanding a vote on offshore oil drilling.

Conservatives predicted significant gains in the polls as a result of their stunt. The Hill wrote, “House Republicans believe they have struck political gold with American voters.” Instead, Davis’s support for big oil cost him his job.

House Minority Leader John Boehner claims that he is not worried by Davis’s defeat. His rejection, however, could be a warning to those candidates who — in the pursuit of cheap political points — choose to support Big Oil’s profit-driven campaign to expand offshore drilling.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

An American guy is capable of many costumes -- Riverboat Gambler, Sensitive Aesthete, Wilderness Scout, Lounge Lizard, House Husband, Dangerous Radical and Scourge of Society, Aging Preppie -- and I've tried out most of them, but as you enter your golden years, your interest in masquerade naturally diminishes, and so it's interesting to see America's Oldest Presidential Candidate out on the hustings transforming himself into a yahoo and a cracker. Whatever consultant told him to do this is being paid way too much.

The political exploitation of wounded American soldiers by Sen. McCain and his eagerness to introduce race into the race was yahoo behavior, but never mind -- if you lived through the Nixon years and then read the transcripts of the tapes, you are not surprised by anything in politics whatsoever. A bitter, paranoid man of towering personal insecurity, Nixon talked like Broderick Crawford and thereby beat a decorated war hero, George McGovern, even as Nixon was directing an American retreat and defeat in Vietnam that he (and Sen. McCain) blamed on student protesters. And the famous G-man J. Edgar Hoover was gay. He and his lover, Clyde Tolson, brought Alvin Karpis to St. Paul for the trial. So what? It's an amazing country.

It's an amazing country where an anthrax researcher working for the Defense Department may have carried out a murderous campaign with anthrax and thereby succeeded in winning vast new appropriations for the anthrax program.

And it's an amazing country where an Arizona multimillionaire can attack a Chicago South Sider as an elitist and hope to make it stick. The Chicagoan was brought up by a single mom who had big ambitions for him, and he got scholarshipped into Harvard Law and was made president of the law review, all of it on his own hook, whereas the Arizonan is the son of an admiral and was ushered into Annapolis though an indifferent student, much like the Current Occupant, both of them men who are very lucky that their fathers were born before they were. The Chicagoan, who grew up without a father, wrote a book on his own, using a computer. The Arizonan hired people to write his for him. But because the Chicagoan can say what he thinks and make sense and the Arizonan cannot do that for more than 30 seconds at a time, the old guy is hoping to portray the skinny guy as arrogant.

Good luck with that, sir.

Meanwhile, the casual revelation last month that Mr. McCain has never figured out how to use a computer and has never sent e-mail or Googled is rather startling. It's like admitting that you've never clipped your own toenails or that you didn't know that toothpaste comes out of a tube because your valet always did that for you. It's like being amazed at the sight of a supermarket scanner. What world does Mr. McCain live in? Where does he keep his sense of curiosity? My 94-year-old mother has sent e-mail. Does somebody plan to show him how it's done and will they explain to him what "LOL" means?

Tire Gauge Joke Is on GOP, Not Obama

(Newser) – Republicans are laughing at Barack Obama’s suggestion that if Americans drove on properly inflated tires and had their vehicles tuned up regularly, they could save as much gas as offshore drilling would produce. The RNC is distributing tire gauges labeled “Barack Obama’s Energy Plan” and cackling with glee. There’s just one problem, writes Michael Grunwald of Time: Obama’s right.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Sunday, August 3, 2008

"I am proud of that record, from fighting for the recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday in my state to sponsoring specific legislation that would prevent discrimination in any shape or form in America today."

McCain Claim: McCain Defended Opposition Of Federal MLK Holiday By Saying He Supported Arizona’s State Holiday. During a press availability in Panama City, Florida, John McCain said, “I have supported hundreds of pieces of legislation, which would help Americans obtain an equal opportunity in America. I am proud of that record, from fighting for the recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday in my state to sponsoring specific legislation that would prevent discrimination in any shape or form in America today.” [McCain Press Availability In Panama City, Florida, 8/1/08]

* FACT: McCain Supported Republican AZ Governor’s Decision To Rescind MLK Holiday. ABC News reported, “In Arizona, a bill to recognize a holiday honoring MLK failed in the legislature, so then-Gov. Bruce Babbitt, a Democrat, declared one through executive order. In January 1987, the first act of Arizona’s new governor, Republican Evan Mecham, was to rescind the executive order by his predecessor to create an MLK holiday. Arizona’s stance became a national controversy. McCain backed the decision at the time.” [ABC News, 4/3/08]

* FACT: McCain Supported Gov. Evan Mecham’s Decision In 1987 To Rescind Martin Luther King Jr. Day. As reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer, “In a vote likely to haunt him for the rest of his public career, McCain voted against 1983 legislation establishing the third Monday in January as the federal holiday marking King’s birthday. Back home in Arizona, he supported Gov. Evan Mecham’s decision in 1987 to rescind an executive order creating a state holiday for King, but later reversed his position.” [Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/16/08]

* FACT: McCain Voted Against Creating Martin Luther King Holiday. In 1983, McCain voted against a motion to suspend the rules and pass a bill to designate the third Monday of every January as a federal holiday in honor of the late civil rights leader, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The motion passed 89-77. [HR 3706, Vote 289, 8/2/83; CQ 1983]

McCain Admitted His Opposition To The Federal MLK Holiday Was “A Mistake” And His Position Has “Evolved.” During a 2000 interview, McCain compared his evolution on this issue to former Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater. “I believe that Barry Goldwater, to start with, regretted his vote on the 1964 Civil Rights Act,” McCain said. “I think that Barry grew, like all of us grow and evolve. In 1983, when I was brand-new in the Congress, I voted against the recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King. That was a mistake, OK? And later I had the chance to … help fight for … the recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King as a holiday in my state.” [ www.salon.com 4/18/00; Accessed 4/2/08]

* FACT: McCain Voted Against The Civil Rights Act Of 1990 FOUR Times. In 1990, McCain voted against a bill designed to address employer discrimination at least 4 times. According to the Washington Post, the “Civil Rights Act of 1990 is designed to overturn several recent Supreme Court rulings that made it much more difficult for individual employees to prove discrimination. The legislation, being fought by business, also would impose new penalties on employers convicted of job discrimination.” [S 2104, Vote #304, 10/24/90; Vote #276, Vote #275, 10/16/90; Vote #161, 7/18/90; Washington Post, 7/9/90]

Today, the LA Times reports that the individual who may have been responsible for the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people and sickened 17 others apparently committed suicide. As Atrios recalls, shortly after 9/11, conservatives were pinning the blame for the anthrax attacks on Iraq, laying the groundwork for a subsequent invasion. John McCain was part of this fearmongering effort.

On October 18, 2001, McCain appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman. When asked how the war in Afghanistan was progressing, McCain volunteered that the invasion of Iraq would be the “second phase” of the War on Terror. He preyed on the public’s fear at the time by claiming that the anthrax “may have come from Iraq”:

LETTERMAN: How are things going in Afghanistan now?

MCCAIN: I think we’re doing fine …. I think we’ll do fine. The second phase is Iraq. If I could just make one, very quickly. The second phase is Iraq. There is some indication, and I don’t have the conclusions, but some of this anthrax may — and I emphasize may — have come from Iraq.

LETTERMAN: Oh is that right?

MCCAIN: If that should be the case, that’s when some tough decisions will have to be made.

From Atrios' blog, Eschaton:

"The attacks were not entirely unexpected. I had been told soon after Sept. 11 tosecure Cipro, the antidote to anthrax. The tip had come in a roundabout way froma high government official, and I immediately acted on it. I was carrying Ciproway before most people had ever heard of it."--Richard Cohen

"Years later it apparently does not occur to American's Funniest Pundit to ask why a "high government official" was warning media figures to start popping Cipro in the aftermath of 9/11. I can see why, at the time, the obvious interpretation would be that there was intelligence about possible biological attacks. But now that we know that the US gov't believes that anthrax came from the inside, shouldn't Cohen be a wee bit curious about what this warning was based on?"--Atrios

Were the anthrax attacks part of the Bush administration's orchestration to get this country ready to attack Iraq (which had nothing to do with 9/11, as President Bush has stated himself)? Good question. "We now know -- we knew even before news of Ivins' suicide last night, and know especially in light of it -- that the anthrax attacks didn't come from Iraq or any foreign government at all. It came from our own Government's scientist, from the top Army bioweapons research laboratory.More significantly, the false reports linking anthrax to Iraq also came from the U.S. Government -- from people with some type of significant links to the same facility responsible for the attacks themselves.

Surely the question of who generated those false Iraq-anthrax reports is one of the most significant and explosive stories of the last decade. The motive to fabricate reports of bentonite and a link to Saddam is glaring. Those fabrications played some significant role -- I'd argue a very major role -- in propagandizing the American public to perceive of Saddam as a threat, and further, propagandized the public to believe that our country was sufficiently threatened by foreign elements that a whole series of radical policies that the Bush administration wanted to pursue -- including an attack an Iraq and a whole array of assaults on our basic constitutional framework -- were justified and even necessary in order to survive.

ABC News already knows the answers to these questions. They know who concocted the false bentonite story and who passed it on to them with the specific intent of having them broadcast those false claims to the world, in order to link Saddam to the anthrax attacks and -- as importantly -- to conceal the real culprits behind the attacks. And yet, unbelievably, they are keeping the story to themselves, refusing to disclose who did all of this. They're allegedly a news organization, in possession of one of the most significant news stories of the last decade, and they are concealing it from the public, even years later.

They're not protecting "sources." The people who fed them the bentonite story aren't "sources." They're fabricators and liars who purposely used ABC News to disseminate to the American public an extremely consequential and damaging falsehood. But by protecting the wrongdoers, ABC News has made itself complicit in this fraud perpetrated on the public, rather than a news organization uncovering such frauds. That is why this is one of the most extreme journalistic scandals that exists, and it deserves a lot more debate and attention than it has received thus far. "

From Times OnlineAugust 1, 2008Chief suspect in US anthraxattacks found dead

Thechief suspect in the 2001 anthrax postal attacks in the US has died from anapparent suicide just as the Justice Department was to file criminal chargesagainst him.

Bruce Ivins, 62, one of America's top biodefense researchers, had beentold that he was going to be prosecuted for the attacks that killed five peopleand sent the country into panic in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the TwinTowers. He died in hospital on Thursday after taking a huge dose of prescriptionTylenol, a painkiller, mixed with codeine.

The scientist had worked at the the United States Army Medical ResearchInstitute,(USAMRIID), the government's elite biodefense research laboratories inMaryland for 18 years. He had played a pivotal role in research to improveanthrax vaccines, and during the attacks had helped the FBI analyse powderymaterial recovered from an envelope tainted with anthrax which had been sent tothe Washington DC office of Tom Daschle, a US senator.

His imminent prosecution had not been made public but followed agovernment payout of $US5.82m (Pounds 2.9m) to a former government scientist,Steven Hatfill, who had been the FBI's chief suspect for the anthrax attacksalmost since the beginning. The payout to Hatfill, an unusual development thatexonerated him of being the anthrax attacker was an essential step to clear theway for prosecuting Ivins, lawyers familiar with the case told the LA Times. The focus was moved to Mr Ivins after the head of the anthraxinvestigation was moved. His replacement ordered agents to re-examine leads orpotential suspects, and this led the FBI back to USAMRIID, where agents hadfirst questioned scientists including Mr Ivins in December 2001, a few weeksafter the fatal mailings.

An internal report in 2006 found that anthrax spores had escaped frombiosafety containment labs at USAMRIID in 2001 and that Mr Ivins had carried outunauthorised testing of areas he believed might be contaminated.

Soon after the government's settlement with Mr Hatfill was announced,Mr Ivins began showing signs of serious strain according to his colleagues. Oneof his workmates told the LA Times that Mr Ivins, who was being treated fordepression, recently indicated to a therapist that he was considering suicide.

The scientist faced forced retirement, planned for September, said thecolleague.The FBI refused to comment on Mr Ivins' death. However, FBIDirector Mueller told CNN last week that, "in some sense, there have beenbreakthroughs" in the case.

"I'll tell you we made great progress in the investigation," Muelleradded. "And it's in no way dormant."

The anthrax attacks in 2001 began in the weeks following 9/11 and panicsoon spread in the US. The first victim was Robert Stevens, a tabloid newspapereditor in Florida who died of inhalation anthax and over the next few monthsanother six people died, one of them a postal worker in the mailroom of the NewYork Post. Seventeen more became ill but recovered after treatment.